The Builders Book Discussion

Duncan1574

Lodge Chaplain & arms dealer
I could do it in disguise...

:D
You: Hello Brother Tyler, my name is ahhh, Bruce, I am a visiting Brother from Lodge #Mumblemumble.
Tyler: Bob, Whats with the fake mustache?
You: Whos Bob?
Tyler: You are.
You: no, I am Bruce............ SQUIRREL! ::points excitedly to the right:: and exists stage left. :eek:
 

Bob Franks

Past District Deputy Grand Lecturer
You: Hello Brother Tyler, my name is ahhh, Bruce, I am a visiting Brother from Lodge #Mumblemumble.
Tyler: Bob, Whats with the fake mustache?
You: Whos Bob?
Tyler: You are.
You: no, I am Bruce............ SQUIRREL! ::points excitedly to the right:: and exists stage left. :eek:
It would be my luck he'd taken his Adderall© that day!

:D
 

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
Monday!!!??? Monday!!!!??? Oh, OK.... ;)

At least you've got three of us, and Bro. Bob (The beloved forum lurker :eek: ).

Maybe the others that had initially shown interest can pick up on chapter 2-3's discussions. After the Holidays are over.
I shown interest at first but I am not participating because I dislike the book .
 
G

Gary

Guest
I'm not too fond of the writing style. I find it hard to read.
 

Duncan1574

Lodge Chaplain & arms dealer
I'm not too fond of the writing style. I find it hard to read.
I must be the anomaly, I love his writing style, he writes like Queen Elizabeth I court talked, never say anything with one word when 15-20 will do. I get great mental pictures from his words.

QUOTING
An example in point, as ancient as it is eloquent, is the idea of the trinity and its emblem, the triangle. What the human thought of God is depends on what power of the mind or aspect of life man uses as a lens through which to look into the mystery of things. Conceived of as the will of the world, God is one, and we have the monotheism of Moses. Seen through instinct and the kaleidoscope of the senses, God is multiple, and the result is polytheism and its gods without number. For the reason, God is a dualism made up of matter and mind, as in the faith of Zoroaster and many other cults. But when the social life of man becomes the prism of faith, God is a trinity of Father, Mother, Child. Almost as old as human thought, we find the idea of the trinity and its triangle emblem everywhere—Siva, Vishnu, and Brahma in India corresponding to Osiris, Isis, and Horus in Egypt. No doubt this idea underlay the old pyramid emblem, at each corner of which stood one of the gods. No missionary carried this profound truth over the earth. It grew out of a natural and universal human experience, and is explained by the fact of the unity of the human mind and its vision of God through the family.
UNQUOTE

Boil that down to: g-d is universal and comes from Man's experience as he interacts with others and with nature. Interestingly most religions do indeed have a triune godhead. From Judaism/Christianity through you name it, there is almost always three aspects to Deity. Therefore the universality of the triangle shape.
 

Duncan1574

Lodge Chaplain & arms dealer
I'm not too fond of the writing style. I find it hard to read.
Additionally, where do you find more light? Walking an old path or a new one? What new wonder awaits behind door #1, 2, or 3? As a petitioner, EA, and FC knock once again and ask for more and more.
 
G

Gary

Guest
I must be the anomaly, I love his writing style, he writes like Queen Elizabeth I court talked, never say anything with one word when 15-20 will do. I get great mental pictures from his words.

I got bored with it. I like books with lots of words in them too... Generally those words lead to a point. They aren't put there for the sake of just taking up the readers time. I found myself saying aloud "GET ON WITH IT!!!!" while reading this book.

Don't get me wrong, there is good information in the book. I just don't like rambling.
 
GOOD.......I have tried reading this book twice but found it to read like one none stop run on sentence. I appreciate the style but I cant get past the writing to get the meaning.....I mind as well be listening to the school teacher from the Peanuts cartoons....


"WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH"
 

Duncan1574

Lodge Chaplain & arms dealer
I must be the anomaly, I love his writing style, he writes like Queen Elizabeth I court talked, never say anything with one word when 15-20 will do. I get great mental pictures from his words.

QUOTING
An example in point, as ancient as it is eloquent, is the idea of the trinity and its emblem, the triangle. What the human thought of God is depends on what power of the mind or aspect of life man uses as a lens through which to look into the mystery of things. Conceived of as the will of the world, God is one, and we have the monotheism of Moses. Seen through instinct and the kaleidoscope of the senses, God is multiple, and the result is polytheism and its gods without number. For the reason, God is a dualism made up of matter and mind, as in the faith of Zoroaster and many other cults. But when the social life of man becomes the prism of faith, God is a trinity of Father, Mother, Child. Almost as old as human thought, we find the idea of the trinity and its triangle emblem everywhere—Siva, Vishnu, and Brahma in India corresponding to Osiris, Isis, and Horus in Egypt. No doubt this idea underlay the old pyramid emblem, at each corner of which stood one of the gods. No missionary carried this profound truth over the earth. It grew out of a natural and universal human experience, and is explained by the fact of the unity of the human mind and its vision of God through the family.
UNQUOTE

Boil that down to: g-d is universal and comes from Man's experience as he interacts with others and with nature. Interestingly most religions do indeed have a triune godhead. From Judaism/Christianity through you name it, there is almost always three aspects to Deity. Therefore the universality of the triangle shape.
He has a pronounced propensity for pontification, but as I said on my second comment, more light from an old path or a new one? If by listening to a Brother ramble he casts light upon something was the time needed to get to the point worth the journey? We have lost our love of language, we are increasingly losing whole words to contractions that make texting easier, L8R. :rolleyes:
 
G

Gary

Guest
He has a pronounced propensity for pontification, but as I said on my second comment, more light from an old path or a new one? If by listening to a Brother ramble he casts light upon something was the time needed to get to the point worth the journey? We have lost our love of language, we are increasingly losing whole words to contractions that make texting easier, L8R. :rolleyes:
I'm okay with lengthy explanations. I've read Pike, and several other long winded authors. To me, there is a difference between enlightening explanation and rambling. There was just something about this particular book that wasn't my cup of tea, that's all.

I haven't lost my love of language, I just didn't care for this particular author.
 

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
He has a pronounced propensity for pontification, but as I said on my second comment, more light from an old path or a new one? If by listening to a Brother ramble he casts light upon something was the time needed to get to the point worth the journey? We have lost our love of language, we are increasingly losing whole words to contractions that make texting easier, L8R. :rolleyes:
And sometimes , may the light one is trying to cast be lost in the noise ? Like Gary , I have no problem with lengthy explanations , but tedious ramblings are another story .
 

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
Duncan , I have not lost my love of language , I just think people talk to much . And we have those who pontificate because they are extremely well versed on a subject and are far to eager to spread that knowledge and go overboard and some pontificate because they are pretentious jackholes (I am not saying this to be the case here) .

Not all of us are wired the same way . I like things straight and to the point , why use 15 - 20 words , when one or two will do ? It seems a waste of time to me , when I could be thinking on the point that could have just as easily been made by one or two words, I am bombarded by noise and the point soon loses all meaning (to me) .
 

Duncan1574

Lodge Chaplain & arms dealer
Ash & Gary, I misspoken, I mean that society in general is losing their love for language, not 'us' on this forum. From what I have seen, the active members of this forum and some of my friends (even on Facebook) are anomalies to this tread in society towards monosyllabic mumbling.

To quote:
Gabriel: You know what the problem with Hollywood is? They make shit. Unbelievable, unremarkable shit. Now I'm not some grungy wannabe filmmaker that's searching for existentialism through a haze of bong smoke or something. No, it's easy to pick apart bad acting, short-sighted directing, and a purely moronic stringing together of words that many of the studios term as "prose". ....

:)

Level and Square Brothers.
 
G

Gary

Guest
Duncan , I have not lost my love of language , I just think people talk to much . And we have those who pontificate because they are extremely well versed on a subject and are far to eager to spread that knowledge and go overboard and some pontificate because they are pretentious jackholes (I am not saying this to be the case here) .

Not all of us are wired the same way . I like things straight and to the point , why use 15 - 20 words , when one or two will do ? It seems a waste of time to me , when I could be thinking on the point that could have just as easily been made by one or two words, I am bombarded by noise and the point soon loses all meaning (to me) .
Ashlar, we must be drinking the from the same pot of coffee! LOL ;)

I'm thinking about posting some rules for our book selections in the future. I think it would be a good idea to list the books by category, and then go by writing style to educate the participants as to what they are in for before we start a book.

Those that like books like The Builders can group those selections together and select them for one type of category. Those that like a lighter read, or a more modern take, can list selections as well. I think we will get a more rounded group of participation that way, and it will reduce the disappointment factor. We could run a discussion for each category if it was necessary.

I think we should continue with this book however, since Winter was nice enough to kick off the review.
 
G

Gary

Guest
Ash & Gary, I misspoken, I mean that society in general is losing their love for language, not 'us' on this forum. From what I have seen, the active members of this forum and some of my friends (even on Facebook) are anomalies to this tread in society towards monosyllabic mumbling.

To quote:
Gabriel: You know what the problem with Hollywood is? They make shit. Unbelievable, unremarkable shit. Now I'm not some grungy wannabe filmmaker that's searching for existentialism through a haze of bong smoke or something. No, it's easy to pick apart bad acting, short-sighted directing, and a purely moronic stringing together of words that many of the studios term as "prose". ....

:)

Level and Square Brothers.
No offense taken my Brother. I tend to agree with your view on a larger scale.

Please understand that we are not bashing this book. I think it just took us by surprise when we started reading. It may have been better for us to have selected this reading further down the road, due to it's style (not because of the content!). I definitely think it is a good book and worthy of any mason's library. It's just one of the more difficult books to read without really spending time on reflecting upon the point the author is trying to make.
 

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
No offense taken my Brother. I tend to agree with your view on a larger scale.

Please understand that we are not bashing this book. I think it just took us by surprise when we started reading. It may have been better for us to have selected this reading further down the road, due to it's style (not because of the content!). I definitely think it is a good book and worthy of any mason's library. It's just one of the more difficult books to read without really spending time on reflecting upon the point the author is trying to make.
I was not offended Duncan . I knew what you meant and like Gary here , I agree with you .

This book will take me several readings . Like I said , I need straight and to the point or many hours reading and re-reading . And I will grasp this book eventually , it will take some further pondering as I read . I do tend to be thick headed .
 
I know I havent been involved with the book discussion as I have not read it....I have tried several times but every time I have tried to read it, it just seemed like one long run-on sentence. I am sure there is some very good info in there....I appreciate the skill of which it was written but I too like it when you get right to the point.... This will be a book that takes me a pretty long time to read...think about...read some more....and then think some more...
 

Zack

Active Member
It seems that Brother Nagy's books might lend themselves to easier discussion. Not because of their content but because of the catechism form of writing that we are all familiar with, and more likely to be comfortable with.
IMO.
 

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
I am sure "The builders" is a fine book , and I spoke out of turn when I said I disliked it . I should say I dislike the writing style . I am sure , after some re-reading of this work I will eventually grow to like it .
 
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